Improvement in annealing cartridge-shells



A. c. HOBBS. Annealing Cartridge-Shells.

'No.I55,835. ,flgf Patented0ct.13,1874-.

- 7 "cares, I

UNITED STATES PATENT CFFIC'E.

ALFRED C. HOBBS, CF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN ANNEALING CARTRIDGE-SHELLS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 155,835, dated October 13, 1874; application filed August 26,1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED CHARLES HOBBS, of Bridgeport, State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Annealing Metallic Shells for Cartridges and other articles; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making partof this specification, in which- Figure 1 represents a plan or top View of my invention, with shells in position to be annealed; Fig. 2, a section through the dotted line, Fig. 1.

In the manufacture of metallic shells for cartridges, of such patterns as require to be reduced in diameter at their front or open ends, it becomes necessary to anneal them so far as they are to be reduced; and to accomplish this in the usual manner--viz., by heated plates having holes therein to receive so much of the ends as are to be reduced-is found exceedingly difficult and uncertain to anneal them uniformly, and to retain this plate, with so many perforations, and heated to redness so frequently, from warping and becoming useless; besides, the operation is, of necessity, slow as well as unsatisfactory.

To avoid these difliculties, and to anneal cartridge shells and other articles expeditiously and uniformly, I have arranged a rotating dial-plate, A,-which may be driven by a belt upon its periphery, or in any other convenient manner, upon the face of which plate is a suitable groove, 11, into which the heads of the shells are placed, with their open ends upward, to be presented successively to the action of a jet or jets of flame to be annealed. At one side of this moving plate A are placed ordinary blow-pipes c 0, between which the shells or other articles to be annealed pass in succession, receiving upon so much of their bodies as require to be reduced the flame from these blow-pipes c c.

Any amount of heat may be obtained by increasing the number of pipes'without changing the speed of the moving plate A, or the degree of heat varies to suit the articles being annealed by regulating the speed of the plate A, using the same number of blowpipes.

It is evident that a great number of modifications of my invention may be employed to accomplish the object herein described. As an example, the plate A may be perforated, so that the shells may hang by their heads downward, projecting through the lower side thereof as far as may be necessary to receive the flame from the blow-pipes for annealing, and the special arrangement herein set forth, and shown in the accompanying drawings, is not material, as stated, as so many other equivalent arrangements might be substituted; but I have selected this one as sufflcient to represent my invention, it being found, in practice, efficient and satisfactory, performing the work of annealing metallic shells for cartridges uniformly and expeditiously.

It will be observed that the arrangement shown in the accompanying drawing represents the blow-pipes arranged on either side of the passing shells (I, so that the flame may strike upon two opposite surfaces at the same time, thereby completely encircling the shells with flame as they pass, beating them uniformly to the same degree.

Having thus fully described my inven -ion, what I claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination of the rotating or moving my plate A and blow-pipes c, constructed and op erating substantially as herein set forth, for annealing successively metallic shells for cartridges and other articles.

A. G. HOBBS.

Witnesses:

G. W. HEBARD. E. S. HYDE. 

